The Secret of Ventriloquism

Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism, named the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine, heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Schulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Padgett's work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both.

The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft

The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the 12 principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many New York Times best sellers; full of original fiction; and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.

Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors

In ghastly harmony with the nightmarish visions of the award-winning writer's novels, these stories blend a lifelong appreciation of horror culture with the grotesque fascinations and childlike terrors that are the author's own.

Sing Me Your Scars: Apex Voices, Volume 3

Sometimes, a thread pulled through the flesh is all that holds you together. Sometimes, the blade of a knife or the point of a nail is the only way you know you're real. When pain becomes art and a quarter is buried deep within you, all you want is to be seen, to have value, to be loved. But love can be fragile, folded into an origami elephant while you disappear, carried on the musical notes that build a bridge, or woven into an illusion so real, so perfect that you can fool yourself for a little while.

Wallflower

After an encounter with a homeless man, a high school graduate becomes obsessed with the idea of doing heroin, challenging himself to try it just once. A bleak tale of addiction, delusion, and flowers.

Haven

In 1961, the small town of Haven thought they'd gotten rid of their monster. After a series of child killings, Paul Greymore was caught carrying a wounded girl. His face, disfigured from a childhood accident, seemed to confirm he was the monster the community hoped to banish. With Paul in prison, the killings stopped. For 17 years, Haven was peaceful again. But Paul served his time and has now returned to Haven - the town where he grew up, and the scene of his alleged crimes.

The Fireman: A Novel

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it's Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies - before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror

The intoxication from a pint of vodka, the electric buzz from snorting cocaine, the warm embrace from shooting heroin - drinking and drugging provide the height of human experience. It's the promise of heaven on earth, but the hell that follows is a constant hunger, a cold emptiness. The craving to get high is a yearning as intense of any blood-thirsty monster. The stories inside feature the insidious nature of addiction told with compassion yet searing honesty.

The Devil Crept In

Young Jude Brighton has been missing for three days, and while the search for him is in full swing in the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the locals are starting to lose hope. They're well aware that the first 48 hours are critical and after that, the odds usually point to a worst-case scenario. And despite Stevie Clark's youth, he knows that, too; he's seen the cop shows. He knows what each ticking moment may mean for Jude, his cousin and best friend.

Come to Dust

Ever since her mother abandoned her, five-year-old Sophie has had to depend on her uncle Mitch for everything. Though their life is difficult, he works hard to keep their family together, despite the obstacles in their way. But just when everything seems to be looking up for them, it all comes crashing down when Sophie dies tragically. Mitch descends into a crippling grief, not knowing how to continue on without her.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock: A Novel

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: Her 13-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park. The search isn't yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy's disappearance. They feel helpless and alone, and their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: The local and state police have uncovered no leads.

Cyclops Road

Evan Portin is at a sad, scary place in his life. While taking a long walk to compose himself and figure out where to go from here, he encounters a young woman being mugged in a park. When he tries to intervene, he discovers that she doesn't need his help. At all. Her name is Harriett. She is very, very good at defending herself. Everything she owns is in a large backpack. She's never seen a cell phone. She's never been in a car. She's never really ventured into the outside world. And she says she's traveling across the country to slay a Cyclops. She's crazy, right?

The Fiddle Is the Devil's Instrument: And Other Forbidden Knowledge

From Brett J. Talley, the master of Lovecraftian terror, comes thirteen tales of the dark forces that lurk just beyond man's understanding. Read them if you must but do not forget: there are some things mankind was never meant to know.

A Long December

Chizmar assembles 35 stories, including a previously unpublished novella, and presents us with A Long December. This massive new collection features more than 150,000 words of Chizmar's very best short fiction and includes 8,000 words of autobiographical story notes. Eerie, suspenseful, poignant, the stories in A Long December range from horror to suspense, crime to dark fantasy, mainstream to mystery.

Monsters in Our Wake

In the idyllic waters of the South Pacific lurks a dangerous and insatiable predator; a monster whose bloodlust and greed threatens the very survival of our planet...the oil industry. Thousands of miles from the nearest human settlement, deep on the ocean floor, ancient creatures have lived peacefully for millennia. But when an oil drill bursts through their lair, Nøkken attacks, damaging the drilling ship's engine and trapping the desperate crew.

Weaveworld

Clive Barker has made his mark on modern fiction by exposing all that is surreal and magical in the ordinary world - and exploring the profound and overwhelming terror that results. With its volatile mix of the fantastical and the contemporary, the everyday and the otherworldly, Weaveworld is an epic work of dark fantasy and horror - a tour de force from one of today's most forceful and imaginative artists.

The Fisherman

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.

Universal Harvester: A Novel

Jeremy works at the Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It's a small town in the center of the state - the first a in Nevada pronounced ay. This is the late 1990s, and even if the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut, there are still regular customers, a rush in the late afternoon. It's good enough for Jeremy: It's a job, quiet and predictable, and it gets him out of the house, where he lives with his dad and where they both try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.

Publisher's Summary

Thirty years ago, a progressive rock band called The Yellow Kings began recording what would become their first and final album. Titled The Final Reconciliation, the album was expected to usher in a new renaissance of heavy metal, but it was shelved following a tragic concert that left all but one dead.

The sole survivor of that horrific incident was the band's lead guitarist, Aidan Cross, who's kept silent about the circumstances leading up to that ill-fated performance - until now.

For the first time since the tragedy, Aidan has granted an exclusive interview to finally put rumors to rest and address a question that has haunted the music industry for decades: What happened to The Yellow Kings?

The answer will terrify you.

Inspired by The King in Yellow mythos first established by Robert W. Chambers, and reminiscent of cosmic horror by H. P. Lovecraft, Laird Barron, and John Langan, comes The Final Reconciliation - a chilling tale of regret, the occult, and heavy metal by Todd Keisling.

Proudly brought to you by Crystal Lake Publishing - Tales from the Darkest Depths.

I have received this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The Yellow Kings was a rock back which tried their fortune thirty years ago. Their last performance was a concert in which the band was going to play the songs for the next album "Final Reconciliation", an album which never saw the light, because everybody but one person died during the concert that day. Mystery and horror surrounded that fatidic day, and now thirty years later, Aidan Cross, the band's lead guitarist and only survivor will give an interview and tell all the truth about it.

The final concert by the band was in LA, referred by Camilla, the band groupie which was their undoing, as Carcosa. The name Carcosa was used for the first time by Ambrose Bierce in his short story 'An Inhabitant of Carcosa', and later on by horror authors like Robert W. Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft. The band's name was borrowed from Chamber's book 'The King in Yellow'.

I have not read anything from Chambers but I know a bit of H.P. Lovecraft and I have to say that this story reminded me a bit of his works. The noir horror in which the most dreaded thing is the one you are still waiting for, where your imagination starts to play tricks and you just do not want to see what it is coming.

I was aware fairly quickly about Camilla's intentions but that did not spoil the gruesome effect Keisling got with the last scene at the concert. The character's were not specially developed, since this is not a long book (just over three hours) but Keisling totally succeeded at creating an absorbent atmosphere drawing the reader in to the terrible end.

I would like to make a comment though about something mentioned in the book. Camilla's eyes were different colors, and it is compared to David Bowie's eyes. Contrary to what many people think, Bowies eyes were the same color. What he had was a paralyzed pupil due to a fight with George Underwood when he was fifteen. Just a side note.

Joe Hempel did a wonderful job narrating this book, using a raged tone of voice to narrate the story from old Adam's point of view, transmitting the emotion in the old man's words, and the horror and guilt that have chased him for thirty years. Hempel is a top notch narrator, not only able to deliver different voices for all the characters, but also to provide an extra dimension to the story, multiplying the emotions the writer has put into the text.

This story coupled with Hempel makes a five star audiobook, something that any H.P. Lovecraft fan would enjoy for sure.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. This was a great short story. I was kind of expecting something like what happened, but it's great when someone else fills in the blanks. As a musician that would love to make an EPIC album, this is the price I would have to pay for success. Embrace your inner dark and enjoy the music.

This is an extremely well written book. It is set up with the main character rehashing his youth and the journey that his band took while rising to fame. The characters are well developed, straightforward and exciting characters. There is TONS OF SUSPENSE. The Final Reconciliation is well worth the listen.

This is by far the BEST audio recording I have heard from Joe Hempel. He is a strong audio performer in general, but this book went to a whole different level. His performance is A+. His diction and intonations are spot on. He gives a rock solid performance with clear, precise characters. He uses a variety of voices for the characters. This audio was very well done to the point where I couldn't stop listening. OUTSTANDING!!!!

This story is the story of the Yellow Kings, a band that was killed in a nightclub fire 30 years ago, just as their first album was about to be released. The only survivor of the night, their lead guitar player, is in a nursing home, and agree to be interviewed in a kind of Behind the Music documentary. He explains how the band started building a following, and how they picked up a groupie, who turned out to be much more than she seemed. She influenced the band to throough their first album, causing discention in the band as she wraps the singer in her clutches. She has a plan that is far more nafarious than just being the bands Yoko Ono. This plan could spell the end. Not just of the band, but of everything. Want to see how? Get a copy. Its worth it.

The characters are well drawn out, while the behind the music recollections aspect having a real appeal. The underlying plotline is solid, and keeps the listener interested.

Narrationwise, Joe Hempel really nails this one. Each character has their own distinct personallity, and he really brings out the pathos of the characters. The narrative flow is solid, never having a lull in the narrative pacing. All in all, a 5 star effort. Very reminiscent in tone to Tim Marquitz's and Timothy Long's book Damaged.

I was voluntarily given a review copy of this audiobook by the narrator.

I was provided this audiobook through Audiobook Boom at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review.

Gotta say, I feel bad for that band. It was a sad, horrific story recanted by a now old man revealing the truth about the day his band-mates died. I just rode the train knowing it was going to wreck because hope wasn't given. No way out. No one stronger trying to battle the evil; no one smart enough to try and kick the problem out. Everyone but Johnny knew something was wrong but did nothing. Aiden repeatedly chose not to act on his gut instinct. It was an enjoyable listen, the story moving a a good pace. It kept my interest wanting to know exactly what did happen. And a little "twisted" ending, maybe a bit predictable.

A good mysterious story and characters that are brought to life by a well versed narrator. I really enjoyed this book and was pulled into the story quickly. A different kind of magic and intrigue story. Well worth a listen. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

The title of this audiobook is the name of the first and last album to be recorded by The Yellow Kings, the fictional heavy metal band at the crux of this story.

Thirty years after a tragic concert killed all but one of the band members and hundreds of their fans, the truth of the event is finally revealed when surviving member Aidan Cross agrees to be interviewed.

He is gruff, weary and seeking closure, a state of mind expressed to perfection in Joe Hempel’s narration. You can hear the exhaustion in Cross’s voice and, as he relives the supernatural influences that led to the tragedy, you’re right alongside him with the fear and confusion that leads him to fight against his gut instinct for the sake of the band.

From band leader, Johnny, to his groupie girlfriend Camila, and fellow band members Bobby and Hank, Keisling creates distinct characters that remain equally distinct under Hempel’s deft hand. Keisling seems to have a good grasp on the music industry and the internal dynamics of a travelling band. It’s all very believable and interesting.

Where Keisling goes wrong however, is by pre-empting the action too much. We already know the final outcome, because the story is being told retrospectively by the sole survivor. The details and timing of the tragedy are the only mystery left but, as we travel along memory lane, Keisling chooses to forewarn rather than surprise his listeners with reflections akin to ‘I didn’t know tonight would be the last time I’d see them alive”. We are rarely caught by surprise and almost always know of any major twist that’s about to happen, making The Final Reconciliation a true memory play instead of the horror it’s expected to be. That’s not to say that Keisling’s story isn’t interesting or enjoyable. Quite the opposite. I’m just not convinced that ‘interesting’ is the adjective he was going for.

I’ve had the good fortune to review several audiobooks narrated by Joe Hempel, and you can read those other reviews on my audiobook site at SaidNotRead dot wordpress dot com, along with articles and other horror audiobook reviews. Meanwhile, don’t discount this short story because, despite its faults, it’s still a good listen.

4 young rock and rollers from Southeastern Kentucky get in a little bit over their heads, when Johnny the lead singer, takes on a new groupie. The beautiful and mysterious Camila. She immediately asserts her will over Johnny and the band as they prepare for the release of their groundbreaking first album, The Final Reconciliation. Her influence is undeniable and with her help, “The Yellow Kings” first show is going to be a killer. Literally. It may also be the end of world as we know it. Now that’s rock and roll!!

An excellent novella from Todd Keisling and a very well done audiobook from Joe Hemple. The story moved fast. No fluff required. Joe’s narration really gelled with the story and definitely enhanced the experience. Well done all the way around and highly recommended.

*I received a copy of this audiobook from the narrator in exchange for an honest review. This was it.

This was a good and scary recollection of the end of the rock band the Yellow King. Aidan tells the story of the end of the band. I loved the ending makes me wonder if there will be more books coming with Camilla. The book is good as well as short listen and great narration. Recommend to anyone who enjoys horror. I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator. Thank you.